Derek J. Brice

Derek J. Brice is Of Counsel at Andrews • Lagasse • Branch & Bell LLP and specializes in areas of law related to the nuclear power industry. He is currently seconded into the decommissioning organization at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) as Decommissioning Counsel, one of the Decommissioning Key Executives. In that role he provides legal advice and counsel regarding the administration and implementation of the decommissioning general contract, as well as on matters including Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing and compliance issues, waste management, transportation, and disposal, spent fuel management, vendor contracts, and resolution of disputes.

Mr. Brice has worked in the nuclear power industry as both an engineer and a lawyer. He was most recently in-house Legal Counsel with Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and its operating subsidiary Nawah Energy Company, the owner and operator of Abu Dhabi’s four-unit Barakah Nuclear Power Plant currently under construction in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. In his four-and-a-half years there he advised on matters involving prime contractor oversight, regulatory compliance, corporate governance, and operational readiness. In his role as Secretary to the ENEC Board’s Committee on Nuclear Power — comprising Board members and outside experts from the U.S. nuclear-power industry — he facilitated and contributed to the Committee’s exercise of the Board’s oversight of management and provision of strategic direction on matters involving nuclear safety, regulatory compliance, and operational reliability.

Prior to his engagement with ENEC, Mr. Brice was an associate in a leading nuclear energy practice located in Alabama where he advised on matters involving nuclear power plants, both operational and under construction. Mr. Brice began his legal career as an associate in the patent-litigation departments of two internationally-prominent firms, first in Los Angeles, and then in Houston.

Before attending law school, Mr. Brice was engaged in the nuclear power industry as an engineer. During his years at Oregon State University, he was an intern engineer for Portland General Electric at its Trojan Nuclear Power Plant, and later in PG&E’s Electrical Distribution Systems Planning Group. He began his full-time nuclear-engineering career in the Fuels Design Group at Washington Public Power Supply System (now Energy Northwest) at its boiling water reactor WNP-2 (now Columbia Generating Station). He then designed nuclear cores for other boiling water reactors while an engineer at Framatome ANP/Siemens Power Corporation (now AREVA).

Mr. Brice obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering from Oregon State University in 1995, and a Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering from Oregon State University in 1998. He obtained a Master of Technology Management degree from the Washington State University College of Business and Economics in 2002, and a J.D. from the University of Southern California Law School in 2005, where he was a member of the Southern California Law Review.